Starbound: Review
by indogma
Summary: This is my own two cents on the game Starbound while still in a beta. Please note: this is a review not an actual story.


A Review for Starbound

By Indogma on a whim.

Wrote during the Furious Koala version.

_Starbound_ is a game where if we looked at the hereditary DNA find that it was one of the descendants of _Minecraft _with it's father being a very similar game of _Terreria. _But unlike it's father, _Starbound _has taken what a lot of spinoffs do and set the game in space! Like it is the bastard son of _Terreria _because the 2D game got drunk one night and had a one-night stand with _Eve Online._

It's often the case with games, first you have a ground breaking game, then you have your set carbon copies with a few changes here or their, and then you have the other games who carbon copy the game, but in a different setting with different features, like _Terraria _and _Starbound_.

Now, I should note that the game itself is still in beta, which seems like an odd time to review it, but the game dose charge money to purchase it, and wanted to say my peace of what I thought of the game that I played for the past two weeks while still in beta. And I should also add that this review is focused on the latest beta version, and not the final product, so what Chucklefish does in the end and if this review means anything, is still undetermined.

As a player starts the games, they find that they can pick between six different races and many different character models within the six races. But a point I'd like to make is the fact that the different races do not produce any attributes to assist or hinder the game play, which seems like a lost of potential. I could image the aquatic race, (the Hylotl) being able to breath under water and not have to go to the surface for air. But in the end I could find no discernable difference between the races, other than the interactions with the NPCs and your personal preference if gills look good with your skirt or leaf hair.

But after you decide what your character looks like then the game begins, and wait, what? You get missions that could potentially teach players how to play the game, oh thank the gaming gods!

The missions themselves start from very childish, "Search for matter manipulator in the container right next to you" "Get food" "Get iron" and the like. But from there, they progress evenly until you have to build a distress beacon, which takes a lot of resources to do, and the difficulty spikes if you are un prepared. When you construct it, you activate it for a boss fight, with a penguin UFO, and ground trooper that look like they are from a military branch from _Dr. Strangelove. _But old movie comparisons aside, it is a relativity difficult fight if you decided to build a house on the surface, like the normal person you are. Fortunate, the planet I lived on was plagued by meteorites falling from the sky, and I had to build my house under ground. Just a word of warning, if you do build a beacon, DON'T PUT IT ON TOP OF YOUR HOUSE!

And as soon as the alien penguins are dead and their ship destroyed, (I never thought I would write that line), you find a molten core and unlock a metal-work station increasing your range of planetary movement, and what you can craft.

But then the game seems to say: "Oh? You have a molten core? Good job!" "Thanks, now what am I suppose to do?" "Eh, I've taught you enough," it says throwing you out into the cold, "Now go out there an make me proud!" And the quests seem to stop there, which is awkward. Now instead of holding your hand and leading you along, the game seems to have been leading you to a cliff throwing you off it, saying "Now fly!" as you go plummeting down with a backpack that the game never told you was a parachute.

If I'm sounding harsh, I can assure you that I am not, I rather like a game somewhere in between tell you what to do and leaving you to figure it out, but I wish it wouldn't happen this abruptly. Furthermore, when the game decides to leave you on your own, the quest button completely loses it's purpose because the game. Supposedly the game says there can be quest to fulfill for the NPCs, but the over 100 hours of play time I never found one person who so much as asked me for a Kleenex, much less a quest.

Now the wiki says that the quests will include some from local NPCs, but it is important to remember that in beta nothing is guaranteed and the quest might be dropped all together, witch is a waste if you ask me.

And while I am on the topic of NPCs, I would like to add that most of them are useless and quick condemners. While I was exploring one planet, a monster decided it didn't like my leather jacket that I was wearing and attacked me. Now I was prepared for this, because it seemed like that those certain alien creatures had all gotten the memo to hate people who wear leather jackets, and got out my sword to be ready. Now the local guards of the local bird village where watching this and decided to join in. Not on my side but instead chose to follow their law to the letter, and attack me because I had swung my sword two close to their homes defending myself. As I said, quick to condemn…

And then there was the NPCs you can spawn with a little cash and metal, but I cannot see why. The one I brought in was a selfish blue haired bastard who sounded like he had taken one too many trips in the mushroom patch if you ask me. Then he proceeded to sleep in my bed like it was my job to feed and provide for him, like he was a son of mine who came home from college with an art degree, and now can't find a job because he only makes paintings out of bodily fluids. And I just couldn't accept that. So I spawned a guard to watch over him, and when I turned to leave I swing my sword at the civilian, and unintentionally hit him. Now the guard did not like that, and went into a blind rage like the villager was his lover or something. So in the end, I had to put them both down, the guard because he was attacking me, and the NPC because I needed someone to blame, and I concluded NPCs are not worth one's time.

Now each time you beat a "Boss" in battle, a new map unlocks different star systems, which is a fun way to progress, and find new materials. But one of the things that bugged me was how big the systems are. There are five in total, and you would be lucky to explore five star systems within the hundred or so to choose from. It just seems a little much, and wasteful. But I guess at the waste of condensing the map, you can have as many adventures as you want, Whether it be planet Desta Tora VIIIa or something like that, but then that becomes a problem when you are trying to find you home base in a previous sector because you forgot a diamond pickax or something there. And if you forget the name of that planet, you're out of a pickax and what ever else you left behind.

And the planets themselves are not very different in hindsight. The "unique" creatures in each planet have similar heads, bodies or attacks if you explore enough planets. It seems like the alien animals are spawned much like you character, "chose a face, body, and attack," and viola, you have a new alien! I wish I could chose girl friends like that, then I would have a massive army or red haired beautiful witches what here devoted to me in every… sorry got off topic. In short, after you see the about 12 different types of aliens, you've seen them all.

I wish there was a way to see if there was something worthwhile on these planets before one landed, like a scanner. That way I could see if a planet has a colony of birdmen, or is completely over run by creatures who hate leather jackets or both. And while I am wishing, I would like for there to be some way to teleport to a certain point on the planet's surface instead of just the same point every single time, and forcing you to make the same trek all the way to a certain secret lab that you just died in. *wink, wink*, a teleport beacon!

I would like to add that the game still needs some work, especially with the weather and certain glitches that come with it. One time, I had built a large steel house under ground, and had "commandeered" a stove from a nice human military base that were more then willing to let me take everything from them because they were dead. But as I am several blocks under ground, the rain on the surface somehow got into my house and removed my stove in a torrent of water; leaving the neighboring cooking table and fridge ambiguously untouched.

"We don't know where the copper head went to," they seemed to say with worrying grin on there would be faces. "But he probably fell in a river somewheres… with a pair of cement shoes…"

Now I was not too upset at that, nor at the time it happened again when it took all five of my furnaces, and I though I was going crazy or I was robbed, by an NPC; but I realized that it could happen again, and to something more valuable, like a diamond statue of my character doing a Captain Morgan on top of an alien's head, (I'm not sure if you can make one, but just roll with me on this).

Now if I lost that to, say a creeper on _Minecraft_, I would be slightly more ok knowing that I can direct my anger towards the creeper population in general, aware that it is apart of their job to blow stuff up and to ruin your day if not careful. BUT, losing an item because of a glitch, knowing that countless hours of work and potential friends you have lost playing this game is frustrating. Who can you blame? Yourself, God, Jesus, Obama, The Queen of England, Bill Gates? My frustration eventual fell on Chucklefish, but then I remembered the game still is in beta and is still in the works and I just became frustrated.

But rapping up on that, I would like to add a certain fear that is plucking away at the back of my mind. I am worried that this is pretty close to the final version that will be released, and that the game will not improve after that. If the people at Chucklefish do take this approach, they will be signing this game as a "B" grade game and not up to par with those such as _Minecraft. _There is a lot that can be added to the game to improve it, to make the experience more immersive and fun. Another fear is that Chucklefish might take our money and run, but as I said before these are my fears in the back of the mind, along with a fear that giant ape men with wings like from the _Wizard of OZ _come down and attack everyone; so they are farfetched.

As I look back on this review, I realize I did not touch on game play much, but I don't have to. It's 2 dimensional _Minecraft__, _you build stuff, gather stuff, and kill stuff because they want to steal or destroy your stuff. Enough stuff said.

And I also see that a lot of what I said seemed negative. Now that was all I found wrong with the game that does not mean I did not find it fun. In fact after I post this, I will probably go back and try to get farther in my second play through, as I listen to my email ping saying I have a fanficiton review, like a starving dog waiting for my owner to get home so he could feed me. So if I were to suggest a person to play it they have to fulfill these three requirements: One: Do you like _Minecraft?_ Do you like space travel? And are you willing to play an unfinished game? If you said yes to all of them then give _Starbound _a look on YouTube then take a chance on the game.

Overall, _Starbound _is a game fulfills a certain survival-crafting-SciFy itch that is now present in my life. But I can shamelessly say that if, and this is a big if, if Minecraft makes a rip off of _Starbound, _(Starcraft! Wait, no already used…) two things will happen; one, the circle will be completed. First, _Terreria _is based off of _Minecraft, _then _Starbound_ is based off of _Terreria, _then _Minecraft's Starbound_ would complete this "based off of" wheel. And second if such a game ever did come out, I would drop _Starbound,_ like a year old iphone with my contract up on it, and play that game.

**Update! Feb 10th, 2014  
**

Ok, so as I continued playing I soon realized there was some of the game that needed dressing quick.

As I progressed in the game, I managed to unlock all of the sectors allowing full exploration of the stars and planets along with the discovery of new elements. Normally this would be fun, apart from the fact it adds almost nothing to the game play! I say "almost" trying to be fair to the game, because these elements do have a small use in crafting armor, weapons and furniture, (bed, chair, light and door), but that's it.

It was heart breaking every time I unlocked a new element schematic to discover that it only gave me a limited amount of options as to how I dressed and how I dressed my room. I expected more! And while I am on a tirade of not using elements, why can't we use a element that makes a sword ten times better for a drill or a pickax. Look it up, the highest drill one can make is a diamond one which is not that hard when you get to the "X sector" and diamonds so bold as to appear on the planet's surface, so there is not shortage in regard to diamonds, unlike it's uncompressed cousin coal.

Surprisingly coal wound up being more valuable for me then fricken diamonds did! It's true, in my game, I never ran out of diamonds for upgrades, but I constantly ran out of coal for crafting steel bars, or making torches. So if you are to take one thing from this: **STOCK UP ON FRICKEN** **COAL! **It is the most powerful element in the game, bar none although the game still wants you to adjust to other sources of energy. They throw in plutonium and uranium in the final sector to offer another fuel source, but that's the only thing they are good for, and like the other elements seem trivial compared to the original elements.

I think someone at chucklefish as a hidden agenda against iron, because it's traded in and out for different elements like it was pokémon cards. Plus their are very few Iron tools, or items in the game. I like to think that some of the staff got tetanus when they were a child and it scarred them so much that they swore vengeance against the metal and this is there way of getting back at their arch-rival. I can imagine one of the meetings where they decided this went as follows: "Hey," says one of Chucklefish developers, "How can we get titanium into our game?" "We replace it with iron!" "But why?" "'Cause Iron killed my pa!" Or something like that. But that is the case in the game, they replace iron with titanium, then they replace titanium with another and then another. Why not gold or silver, by this late stage in the game I had way too much of it an was contemplating whether or not it had any value because of inflammation.

It's like they suck this on the very end hoping you might remained engaged with the game, like a long parade that sticks the floats with candy to the very end of the play. But in this case you find the candy to be all the same bland candy with the floats made out of toilet paper and tape!

The one remanding light that I thought was at the end of this rainbow of pointless metals was that once I reached the very end of the iron replacements I would be blessed with a mech that would smite all of my enemies. NOPE. Since I was unable to find a mech plan in the crafting menu, I did the thing any sane man would do, and looked it up on the wiki. Sure enough, the mech design is a random piece of tech that one can find later in the game. But one needs to remember that the worlds are random, and that there are thousands of them and huge once one gets into the huge belly of the world. There is a chance if you go on five planets that none of them could have the mech tech at all. So instead of being able to play with the mech, we have to play needle in the haystack to find the require tech to even consider play with a mech, which undermines the whole purpose of having it as an option if it is random and next to impossible to find.

Another thing that the game adds rather un-blissfully is the planet threat level. At first, the threat levels start simple, in sector one, they start off at one,** at two they raise the stakes and put the threat at... two. And at sector three, the difficulty rises to a dangerous level...three. **Ok, enough with the sarcasm. Sector four, is at four. And at sector X is where the difficulty ramps up. From five to ten, the difficulty varies and it seems that the only reason that such a system exits is to identify what metal is on those planets. Which seems a dumb way to tell what metals are on a planet by the level of risk the local wildlife presents.

So the result is, the first half before you get to sector X is fun and dandy. It's simply _Terreria,_ with every element having several uses and you can discover new and cool uses for the metal. And the second half is boring and dull with new metal posing as iron trying to be cool with little to no uses. (Although I will admit some of the designs of the are cool). But their is no point when you go to sector X because you've pretty much unlocked everything, and the game loses it point.

As of right now, I have stopped playing the game and am waiting for an update hoping it it will adjust the final part of the game. If not I may wait to see what the final product is like.


End file.
